Category Archives: Weekly Update

Force Field

I did start to test the whole dungeon..!

But I did only 7 levels, and only barely as there’s still a little bit more to test in the Level 7.

Why only 7 ? Because I got a tons of little bugs & other stuff to fix and tune. I also improved a few things, like the Force Field effect shown in the screenshot above, or adding an indicator when an enemy interrupts one of our Toons ability, or adding another indicator to show when we’re attacked from sides or the back (which is quite helpful when there are several groups of enemies around our group).

I improved the average dps stat info so now it includes Hit Chance, Critical Chance, Expertise and Haste, which is very helpful to decide what enchantments to favor on your gears. In the same idea, the tooltip to compare 2H-handed weapons take into account the current gear equipped in the off-hand, which makes much easier to decide which set-up is the best.

I also fixed some complex bug about delaying mechanism actions, tuned the skills system so the Stamina skill gets a bit more interesting for spell caster classes, and so on.

The result is that now the game feels much more consistent and near release state ! Visually, it looks really nice, so I might finally be able to do a video (sound FX are still seriously lacking & GUI still needs serious visual improvement, but we’ll get there! ).

Hopefully, it won’t have much bugs left now and I’ll be able to finish to Beta test the Dungeon by the end of the week. Although I’ll have to switch back to Steam & my tennis game soon so I may not have the time to finish the Beta 3 this week…

Let’s see next week how all that will have turned out !

Share

Fireball in hallway

I still didn’t start to test the whole dungeon…

Ok, it becomes a running gag, but at start of last week, I got the energy & the mood to do the final boss fight ! I thought it’d take me only 1 big day, but actually, it took me almost the whole week ! I had planned to do a bunch of little things to make it special, and each one of them took some time to put in place. But at least now, this fight will really feel special, with a series of perks unique to it !

I also upgraded a few visual FX, including the fireball seen in the screenshot above, and I set up the music & ambient track system, on whose our talented musician Robert Engstrand is currently working on !

So this week, I’m really going to test the whole Dungeon ! I just have 1 little thing to do before : upgrading the visual FX for the wand projectile ; it should take me 30 minutes and then here I come, shiver monsters, as my sword will shine !

Share

Druid Specialization

I still didn’t start to test the whole dungeon !

Instead, I got taken in the Druid & Elementalist Talents ; it took some time but now they’re all set up and well working. The result is pretty nice and I’m eager to test all this through the Dungeon. With 4 specializations done, it’s a big step toward finishing the game that has been accomplished !

Also, I added a couple of new potions : they provide respectively Haste & Critical bonus for a short time. I hid a couple in each level, a bit like Easter eggs…

In bonus, I also set up a new decal shader so spider webs and other transparent textures can catch shadows, which avoid an annoying visual bug I had since a while..!

So now I’m ready to jump in testing the Dungeon from start to end ; or almost ready : I’ll tune a bit 1 Boss & check the save system still work 1st, and then I’ll be good to go. If there’s not too much issues, it should take me the whole week.

Share

Warrior Talent Tree (1 Specialization is still missing)

Last week I worked well, but a bit less than hoped, as the Talent System is actually still in need of tuning, enhancing & a bit of debugging ; so it went slower than expected, but we’re getting there !

So I finished 2 Specializations of the Warrior class (the last one for the Paladin will come later), and almost finished the one for the Healer’s Druid specialization. Unfortunately the last one for the Elementalist Mage is still unchanged, and it’ll require some extra work to create the visual FX for its couple of new abilities.

The Warrior Tree will also need a couple of tuning so balancing Specializations will be more interesting (ie: the player should have the possibility to go for 50% on Protection and 50% on Man At Arms, without be too much impaired). But the result is already very nice, and now the whole Talent System is very close of final state, so it feels like the game is getting closer and closer to be done.

This week, I’ll finish the Druid & Elementalist Trees and then I’ll start to Beta test the whole Dungeon, which should take about 1 week if there’s not too much glitches & issues to fix.

Share

Tomb in Level 19

Pfff… Last week went even faster than expected, which means I barely had time to work on Dungeon Guardians…

I did only a few little varied improvements (including buffered input mode allowing to press the key several times, a crash indicator, better Mobs movement on stairs), and then gave some thoughts on the final Boss fight. I still can’t wrap my mind on how exactly it’ll happen, but I’m getting there.

This week, I’ll try to finish the 4 Talent Trees that were already 50% done in the Beta 2, which will let me test the whole Dungeon on the following week. At least, that’s the plan !

We’ll see how it goes soon enough…

Share

20 Levels in 1 Screenshot !

Updating the project to Unity 5 has been pretty quick, but there was a severe hiccup.

I hoped to switch to the new Physically Based Rendering (PBR) ; this kind of rendering produces very realistic lighting and it can be really nice. But unfortunately, there’s no automated process to convert from the classic rendering to this new one, and moreover usually it needs assets created especially for it, else it’s not really physically correct anyway. So PBR may come only for DG2.

So I kept the old lighting system. It’s not bad and it can be prettier than real life, as it kinda amplifies the reflections…

But at least, upgrading to Unity 5 let me load the whole dungeon at once and do the screenshots you can see all around this post ! That gives a pretty impressive mess, no ?

And although I couldn’t remove the Loading screen, now the loading time for the 20 levels is shorter than the time it needed before to load only the 8 levels of the Beta 2, as it’s under 15 seconds, which is really acceptable.

I spent the end of the week upgrading my selling system, as I had to do some changes after the release of my tennis game on Steam and the brutal change in Euro exchange rates since the beginning of the year.

Next week, I’ll have also plenty of little things to do that are totally unrelated to Dungeon Guardians, but hopefully I’ll get back to it before the end of the week. I might either start the final boss fight, or do some small improvements & changes from Beta tester feedback.

Share

Basilisk roaming in the 18th Level

This week went well : I created 2 new levels, and they’re great !

1stly, the Level 17 looks like a kind of fortress lost in the middle of abysses, which leads to unseen sceneries & exploration so far in the dungeon. The idea came to me from LoG2 : early in the game, you can see a castle with stairs on its side, in the middle, relying doors to the inside floors ; I thought it’d be impressive to walk on these stairs, going in & out like that in the middle of the castle ! But actually, they were just for the show, we never walk on these stairs, nor see them from close…   So in Dungeon Guardians, we will ! It’ll look a bit less good, because the gameplay actually handles them, they’re not just for show, but it should still be pretty impressive..!

The Level 17’s puzzle is mix of timed based & observation & trial/error puzzles. I really wonder if it’s too easy or not, hopefully I’ll get some feedback on it before the game release. But anyway, it should at least take a few minutes to solve, to take the time to observe everything, so it’s not too bad.

Due to the verticality of the level, I also hid plenty of “jumping” secrets, where you have to fall of the edge of the fortress to find an hidden entrance.

2ndly, the Level 18 is also a very particular level ! It’s a kind a labyrinth on 2 levels, which gives some great exploration, full of dark corners and surprises, with a bunch of teleporters to spice up the progression. Its puzzle is a teleporter maze, pretty similar to the one from Dungeon Master. I was not a big fan of it, but it brings some nice variation in the puzzle list ; I put plenty of visual indications to avoid feeling too lost & disoriented while in it, and it matches perfectly the theme of the level (labyrinth & teleporters! ).

I gave some thoughts for the Level 19 and I think I’ll go with a more classic approach : a kind of crypt with big rooms & corridors. After a bunch of really special levels, it should feel nice to get something more straightforward. For the Level 20, I still don’t have any clear idea : it’ll be the final level, so it should be special. I have a very special final boss fight in mind, so I should try to build up a level that matches it, but I’m not sure what it means right now.

So all next week will be spent on creating the last 2 levels of the Dungeon, and if things go fast, I’ll start to take care of the bosses of that final Tier.

Cu in 1 week for the next update !

Share

Elder Wyvern Breathing Fire

This past week has been mostly marked by some bad things that happened in my little family and physically took me away from work for a couple of days and impaired my mood for more.

So I did less than planned but I still managed to do a good part : 2 boss fights have been significantly spiced up ; 1 has partly become a “hide-or-die” game, and the other one a more classic “handle the minions” one. As the last boss fight of Tier 4 was already naturally partially avoidance based (ie: need to avoid big fire flood ), then there’s only 1 fight which is mostly tank & spank (with also a hint of avoidance). So on that front, all good !

After that, I integrated all the needed mobs for Tier 5. So now the bestiary is complete with nearly 100 kind of mobs (including variations) ! And that, without counting the 20 bosses ! In the screenshot above, you can see the Wyvern in action ; in-game, it looks more big than in the picture as it’s flying up & down : it gets pretty impressive ! (yes, I put many exclamation marks, that’s how much excited I am to approaching the end of the development! ). I’ll still have to do some tuning and create a few additional abilities to bring some variety, though, but it’ll be done in a few weeks.

And… that’s all for the week…

Oh, I got an great idea for the Level 17, so now I’m just short of 2 good ideas to finish the Dungeon (as I still got 1 in stock).

And maybe I’ll tell you more about it next week !

Share

Crypt Environment

Pffff, I’m getting tired… I integrated the bosses’ assets and give them abilities, but I didn’t design any boss fight so far, so they’re more or less basic tank & spank at this point.

I created & finished the Level 16, though. Result is nice enough, but I feel I’m getting nearly dry ideas wise. I’m not sure how I’m going to create 4 more levels, while I have ideas for only 1 right now. Hopefully, my imagination will trigger and I’ll get some more ideas soon !

Anyway, the Level 16 got 1 impressive architectural place, a couple of pretty well designed level flows, and another strange room. Unfortunately, 1 third of the level is pretty basic, it feels kinda random ; on the other hand, I didn’t do much zones like this in the whole dungeon so far, so maybe it’ll feel as a variation. In all cases, I think it’ll be ok if the fights are still interesting. Plus, I nicely placed some secret passages to keep the exploration interest up.

The puzzle is a timed one… But if you take it as only that, it’s nearly impossible to beat it (or you’ll need a ton of tries). Actually, if you take a couple of minutes and observe everything, it becomes significantly less hard, and although it’s still not easy, it should be doable by most players.

So next week I’m planning to spice up a couple of the boss fights of tier 4, and then switch to tier 5 (ie: Levels 17-20, the final tier!) and integrate all mobs for it and then start and hopefully finish the Level 17.

Cya in 1 week !

Share